Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Cooking Adventure

I took a little trip out into the cooking world today and made my very first not-a-graham-cracker-crust pie. I decided to make a strawberry pie and I needed a pastry shell. My first attempt was seriously laughable. I have no idea how people get their pie crusts to roll out into nice,beautiful circles. Mine ended up as a mis-shapen square/circle. And the whole pinching the edges thing- some parts didn't even have an edge! Fortunately, the second crust turned out a bit better (not much but most of it had an edge, though of varying thicknesses).

After I baked my poor sad little crusts I got to make the filling. This is a freezer pie so I combined egg whites, lemon juice, strawberries, and some sugar and beat it into submission. I ended up with a the best frothy pink strawberry meringue. Then came the folding in of the heavy cream. Apparently my folding abilities are about as good as my crust making skills. I killed the meringue on the first pie and therefore put it on the worst pie shell and popped it in the freezer. It didn't look pretty, but we ate it tonight and it tasted good. I learned a bit the second time around and the second pie looks a lot better. It is in the freezer until a later date. I included a picture of the second pie which I think is what it is supposed to look like.

I think it is safe to say I may be pretty good at cookies, but I concede I am NOT a pie maker. Guess I need to work on that because one thing that drives me nuts is messing up in the kitchen.

1 comment:

Melissa said...

The key to good pie crusts is not to "beat it into submission". You want to work the butter/shortning into the flour just until it forms little balls--don't over do it. Then add freezing cold water into it a tablespoon at a time just until it can be formed into a nice ball. Don't need the ball or squish it around. Then using the side of your hand, push the ball down one way two lines and then two lines across. Then, roll out from middle to outer edges, putting more pressure in the middle and less on the edges. Your rolled out dough only needs to be 1.5 to 2 inches wider than your pie plate--measure during process.

Don't worry, it just takes practice. I'm sure you'll be a pro by Thanksgiving pie time! :)

Good luck!